God Caused Stenographer's Meltdown

On Thursday, well-liked House stenographer Dianne Reidy completely and utterly lost it during a funding-bill vote. Turns out that it wasn't the endless to-and-fro debate over healthcare that sent her to the brink — nope, she had a message about the shutdown from God to deliver to Congress. "For the past 2 and 1/2 weeks, the Holy Spirit has been waking me up in the middle of the night and preparing me (through my reluctance and doubt) to deliver a message in the House Chamber," Dianne wrote in an email. "That is what I did last night.”

"[God] will not be mocked," Reidy shouted yesterday as she gripped the podium. "The greatest deception here is that this is not one nation under God. It never was. It would not have been. The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons. They go against God."

Reidy's husband Dan told the New York Post today that Dianne hadn't slept much since Oct. 1, when the shutdown began — but it wasn't out of stress or the fear that the country was going downhill faster than the Republicans can whip up a conscience clause. Nope, Dan, who's a Pentecostal and former associate pastor at a Christian church in Florida, accepted Dianne's explanation; he said that she doesn't have mental problems, take medication, or drink. He was "proud of her" for delivering the message, although it was "totally out of character."

“God was preparing her for this vote last night, because this was kind of the culmination of everything,” he said. “This was the big one. Everybody’s there. And Dianne didn’t know what she was sharing, she didn’t know when — but she just sensed in her spirit.”

Now that all the fuss is over and she's presumably gotten some sleep, Dianne's feeling much better. "I’m glad that I fulfilled God’s mission for me, absolutely," she said. "It lifted a tremendous burden."

Sigh. At least everyone can get some sleep now...